All About this Week’s Kona 112 Mission

This week Zwifters celebrate the IRONMAN World Championships happening in Kona, Hawaii with a new mission and a new bike.

About the Bike

The new Specialized S-Works Shiv Disc has been kept tightly under wraps until it was unveiled today in Kona, where it will be used by a handful of Specialized-sponsored top pros. It’s a radical bike, made specifically for winning at Kona and breaking lots of UCI rules in the process.

The new Shiv’s most noticeable features are the seat tube “fuel cell” and the front fork with legs which extend all the way to the top of the head tube. But Specialized made a number of radical changes in this completely revamped bike… watch them discuss it below:

Mission Details

To enter the mission, accept it at the Zwift startup screen and agree to the terms.

Completing the mission requires you to ride 112 miles (180km) by 11:59PM PST, October 14, 2018. This distance can be completed over as many Zwift sessions as it takes.

Additionally, those 112 miles must be completed on the Shiv Disc bike. Miles on other bikes do not count towards mission completion. Zwift will automatically put you on the Shiv Disc once you sign up for the mission. Watch out if you’re participating in a non-TT race while taking part in this mission, as you will be placed on the Shiv before your race starts!

Prizes

One lucky Zwifter will win a high-spec version of the new Shiv, which has an approximate retail value of $14,000US. Wow!

10 Zwifters will get to keep the bike in-game, while everyone else will have to wait for the virtual store rollout, which should be happening in the next 4-8 weeks.

How Fast Is the New Shiv?

According to BikeRadar, the new Shiv “is claimed to be a minute faster around the Kona Ironman course compared to the fastest possible 2011-era Shiv setup.”

What about the new Shiv in Zwift? Unfortunately, it’s not any faster than the Zwift TT bike. In fact, it was a bit slower based on my tests this morning, approximately 10 seconds slower per Watopia Figure 8 lap. My guess is Zwift may adjust this a bit in the future to make the bike more appealing to Zwifters.

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About The Author

Eric runs Zwift Insider in his spare time when he isn't on the bike or managing various business interests. He lives in Northern California with his beautiful wife, two kids and dog. Follow on Strava

20 Comments

silverlining
on October 9, 2018 at 11:37 am

Interesting data, but especially intrigued about the virtual store! I noticed an update to the agreement when I logged in, and saw the note about in-app purchases. I know some folks could care less, but I might be tempted to splurge on some customization options if they weren’t too expensive.

Nothing has really come out officially about the virtual store, but I’ve been told by folks at HQ that they don’t want to get into the micropayments biz… they don’t want people to be able to pay real money for virtual stuff.

When I accepted the challenge, it was’n’t really clear to me that this is a TT bike (no drafting effect). Maybe I’didnt read carefully enough or it was not stated in the challenge. Anyways, immediately after I acceptit, I enterred the ZHR handicap race where you have to work as a team to catch up with the slower group in front of you who started a few seconds earlier. At that moment I wasn’t aware that I had no draft but now everything makes sense. Why I couldn’t keep up with the group while being extremely exhausted and stuff.

I found myself in the same situation as Wesley. What made it worse was that I could not find a way of getting off the Shiv mid-event. After multiple stopping/starting/exiting the game in the end I had to re-boot my PC before I was allowed to swap bikes. I believe Zwift should make the limitations of the challenge clearer – EG you will be forced onto the Shiv each & every time you ride, and make it easier to get off the Shiv. One thing I did learn from the experience is how much draft effect you get in a group!

How do I leave this mission? I had to bail from my race this morning because I didn’t realized I was on the new TT bike. Don’t won’t that to happen again, and I’d rather just leave the mission. Is there any way to do it?

Hopefully as the challenge ends today (14th) we will no longer be forced onto the Shiv. My feeling is Zwift really need to organise challenges like this a lot better in the future. Hopefully they have learnt from the experience (as I have, just how hard it is to ride in a large group with no draft effect!)

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